Someone said to me recently, almost like they were talking about my favourite footy team, “I hear auctions aren’t working.” I looked at them with my head tilted to the side, the same way a Labrador looks at its owner doing something it doesn’t quite understand. I knew what they meant. Auction clearance rates are down but that doesn’t mean auctions aren’t working. Auctions have been used for thousands of years. It’s how some of the world’s most expensive art is sold, how courts determine true market value and how charities create competition and excitement around fundraising. Auctions work.
Currently, our auction clearance rate at Ray White Collective is 62%, rising to 82% when you include properties sold within two weeks after auction. That’s certainly down from the pre-Budget market, when our clearance rate was around 85% by auction day. But some perspective is important. Before Covid-19, when the Brisbane market began its recovery, auction clearance rates were around 50%, increasing to roughly 60% in the following two weeks. And here’s the part that is often overlooked. The alternative to an auction isn’t some magical method where every property sells. Generally, it’s putting a price on the property and waiting for a buyer to agree with you. Currently, the success rate for properties selling with a price within 30 days is around 54%, increasing to 64% within 45 days.
Compare that with auctions: 62% on or before auction day and 82% within two weeks afterwards. So are auctions not working or has the market simply changed? Brisbane at the moment is a little like eating your main meal after dessert. It’s still good, it’s just not as sweet. Property values remain supported by our inability to create new supply quickly, ever-growing demand and the decade-long lull Brisbane experienced before Covid-19. But buyers have changed, confidence has changed and the urgency in the market has changed. I didn’t give my mate that entire lecture. Instead, I gave him the short version. “Auction clearance rates are a measurement of the market, not a measurement of auctions.” When clearance rates fall, it doesn’t mean auctions have stopped working. It means the market has changed and auctions are simply showing us by how much.
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